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YesAsia Editorial Description

In his 40-year career, Obayashi Nobuhiko has proven to be one of the few filmmakers able to adeptly tackle a variety of genres. From cult horrors like his debut feature House and Drifting Classroom to acclaimed dramas (Prime of a Woman) to crowd-pleasing youth flicks (Exchange Students), Obayashi is a mainstream director who has never forgotten his experimental roots. His films often take on a theme of chasing memories, as in his 1983 work Girl of Time, a.k.a. The Little Girl Who Conquered Time. Adapted from Tsutsui Yasutaka's 1967 sci-fi novel Toki wo Kakeru Shojo, which also served as the inspiration for an award-winning animated film in 2006, the story follows the bittersweet adventures of a young girl who can travel through time. The film was a great box office hit at the time, and won lead Harada Tomoyo newcomer awards at the Blue Ribbon and Japan Academy Awards.

After inhaling some strange lavender smoke in the school laboratory, 16-year-old Kazuko's (Harada Tomoyo) life takes a strange turn: her days keep repeating themselves. She eventually realizes that she has acquired the ability to leap through time, allowing her to experience the future before it happens. In the midst of these surreal events, Kazuko falls in love with her classmate Kazuo (Ryoichi Takayangai), as memories of their time together keep running through her mind. But it turns out he isn't who he seems to be.

A romantic 16-year-old high school girl in love with a classmate starts dreaming about events before they actually happen. As it turns out, the object of her love is actually a space alien affected by her own romantic views of life and because of their unified wave length...

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"Girl of Time" is an early effort from director Obayashi Nobuhiko that features teen romance, cheesy special effects and a tale of a girl who has come unstuck in time. High school student Kazuko (Harada Tomoyo) and fellow students are tasked with cleaning up after class. Kazuko soon goes missing. She turns up lying unconscious on the floor of the science lab. When she recovers, she says that she had found an overturned beaker spewing lavender-scented fumes that caused her to pass out. So begins a series of very strange events in Kazuko's life.

After the incident at school, Kazuko seems to keep reliving events over and over again, as if she is experiencing a kind of perpetual deja vu. The only person to whom she can confide this strange phenomenon is her classmate (and secret crush) Kazuo (Takayanagi Ryoichi), but Kazuo harbors a secret of his own that will turn pretty Kazuko's world upside down.

The film unfolds its story at a decidedly measured pace and relies for much of its gentle charm upon the sweetly earnest performance of young Miss Harada. (Harada Tomoyo has gone on to a long and successful career. For an excellent example of her mature work, I highly recommend the film "The Youth of Kamiya Etsuko".) The film's biggest weakness is the leaden performance of Takayanagi Ryoichi. Fortunately, Miss Harada more than makes up for this weak link.

Intriguingly, director Obayashi begins the film in black and white, then slowly adds dashes of color, giving the film the pastel look of a hand-tinted painting; he uses the same pastel palate effectively to add a dream-like quality to a couple later scenes. The artfulness of these scenes makes the stodginess of the time-travel sequences even more surprising. "Girl of Time" may be a bit dated, but it makes for very pleasant family viewing.